Extract from the Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge

April 15.President Lincoln called out seventy-five thousand militia to suppress the rebellion, defend the capital,
and retake the forts, mints, etc., seized by the insurgents. Two thousand men have
been called from Massachusetts. Immense enthusiasm here to defend the flag and the Government. The call was doubled. Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation offering letters of marque to anybody and everybody to attack
our merchant vessels and pillage our commerce. If we seize these pirates we cannot
hang them because the South would order reprisals on prisoners of war, and that would
mean mutual extermination. In answer to this Lincoln declared all the Southern States in a state of blockade.